Gears Of War Fanon:Beginner's Guide/Character Creation
Welcome to the Gears Fanon Beginner's Guide to Character Creation! This guide will teach you how to properly create a solid character. Please keep in mind that this guide does not guarantee a great or even a good character. This is a generic guide and it does not account for all contingencies. Guide written by User:Screennameless. The Basics When you decide to make a character, you'll probably have something in mind. Maybe you want to make a war hero, or a genius mechanic, or a psychotic president of a tiny nation. Regardless, you need to expand that small idea into a basic model for your character. Consider the sorts of things you would fill out on a job application, paperwork for a doctor's office, or an identification form for a standardized test (ex. SATs). You might have to include your: *Full name *Age and birthdate *Gender *Ethnicity *Education level *Occupation *Blood type *Social security number *Marital status *Sexual preference *Current or former place of residence *First language *Identifying physical traits such as hair color or weight *Allergies, chronic illnesses, or other related conditions *Close relatives or emergency contacts *And other such features that make you unique. These are the type of things you should outline before even beginning to think of a definitive personality for your character. Infoboxes Gears Fanon makes use of infoboxes which contain several basic traits to fill in. Different types of characters have different infoboxes. A complete list of character infoboxes follows: *Template:Gear Character *Template:Locust Character *Template:Stranded Character *Template:Marauder Character - Reconnoiter universe only. To fill in an infobox, copy the code and place relevant information next to the = signs. For example: {| style="float: left; background: transparent;" | The Rule of Two As a writer, I personally abide by what I call "The Rule of Two". The Rule of Two is as follows: :Any character you create may have two to three really cool things about them. This is a safeguard against Mary Sueism. It's kind of like that rule about wearing more than one accessory: take off the last thing you put on. Obviously, the rule isn't hugely rigid. You're probably better off sticking to two cool things, but a third not-as-cool thing probably won't get you in trouble. For instance, Nell's two cool things are that she's a good sniper and she's got blue hair. She also customizes guns a little, but she's not very good at it and there are several other characters who completely blow her away in the weapons department. So even though it's a third cool thing, it doesn't make her overpowered. It's just that The Rule of Two sounds way better than The Rule of Two-to-Three. Organizing the Page Generally, when you create a character you want to have four major components to the page: :1. An abstract giving a general description about the character's main traits (ex. "John Smith is a middle-aged Gear with brown hair and blue eyes. He is assigned to Epsilon Squad, where he is the team sniper."). :2. A background section detailing the character's history. This can extend very far back (aka their entire life story) or just be relevant to past events in your fanfiction or RP (ex. "John Smith served under Bob Robertson during the Battle of Fighting Creek. Though John survived, his friend Jane Doe was killed by friendly fire, which caused John to become more reserved and solitary.") :3. A section describing what they're doing right now. If you have a fanfiction or current RP including the character, here is where the link goes. :4. The infobox, which is discussed above. Extras There are a few extras which aren't necessary to a character page. These include trivia sections for random facts about your character that may not be otherwise stated and quotes that emphasize your character's personality or likes. Extras are fun, though, so go ahead and add them! See also *Gears of War Fanon:Beginner's Guide/Roleplaying Category:Beginner's Guides